Charred barrel historical factoid or myth?

Whiskey: The art of bourbon
Still standing: The Maker's Mark bourbon distillery in Kentucky

Jonathan Ray

12:01AM GMT 16 Nov 2007

"The barrels had to be charred, following a practice attributed to Elijah Craig, an 18th-century preacher and distiller,
who found the best way to prepare an old fish barrel for storing whiskey was to set fire to its inside."

Re: Charred barrel historical factoid or myth?

Aging whisky in old fish barrels has always been part of the whisky folkklore. A german shop or bottler deliberately repeated the experiment a few years ago. I didnt sample it as I am allergic to fish but reports said it had a fishy taste....

Re: Charred barrel historical factoid or myth?

If fish were stored in a barrel back then, they were more than likely salted for preservation. And no amount of charring would remove the saltiness from the woood and sure as hell not the smell. I agrre with what booker said.

Re: Charred barrel historical factoid or myth?

It's one of those stories that got out of control. The point is that barrels used to be used for storing and shipping many different things and charring was common as a way to sanitize the barrel so it could be reused, for whiskey or some other purpose. Fish would sometimes be mentioned, just as a way to illustrate the strong flavors that might be left in a barrel, making a scraping or re-charring necessary. There may have been times in the distant past when people were sloppy about their reused barrels and whiskey wound up in a fish barrel, but it's a mistake that wouldn't happen twice.

Milk is sometimes mentioned as a better example of a product whose residue might be challenging to banish for whiskey reuse, but it could be done. For American whiskey, of course, used barrels of any kind would have only been used in the very early days. When deliberate aging in earnest began, sometime in the mid-19th century, they were doing it in new barrels, and in Scotland and Ireland I suspect they only re-used barrels that previously held whiskey or wine, or perhaps something like milk, or something else relatively benign, but not fish or pickles or crackers or nails or anything like that. So it's not like you can say a fish barrel never got reused, but you can safely assume it wasn't routine.

Another thing. Scotland would never have been importing fish. Scotland exports fish. Preserved fish, e.g., salted cod preserved and shipped in barrels, was primarily slave food and food for the very poor in large cities.

Kelvin is a cooperage on the south side of Louisville that refurbishes bourbon barrels for Scottish distilleries. They refurbish or rejuvenate the barrels to their customers specifications. Some are simply rinsed, inspected, and repaired as necessary. Some get scraped out, some get recharred, and some get both. It's interesting to see. Very labor intensive and very hot, physical work.